Skift Take
This letter is a mirror to the anguish of travel founders, executives, and operators everywhere in the world today, balancing survival and business purpose.
I have known Intrepid Travel and the founder Darrell Wade for as long as Skift has been around and I have known them as a purposeful travel company that looks to balance the needs of all stakeholders in their world.
One of the world's largest adventure tour operators, its business is as hurt as anyone in our beleaguered sector, and this open letter that CEO James Thorton posted on Wednesday on the company blog to its current and future customers struck me as very heartfelt. I don’t know behind the scenes, I do know Intrepid has gone through the pain of downsizing like all of us, but this feels genuine, the anguish behind the words. I am sure so many tour operators and travel companies going through same issues of balancing their purpose and survival.
So with its permission, we are republishing this letter here, as a mirror to the anguish of travel founders, executives, and operators everywhere.
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For as long as I’ve known Intrepid, the company has never been motivated by money for money’s sake. That’s exactly why I was drawn to it in the first place 15 years ago – it had intentions and motivations beyond just dollar signs.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard it all before.” But let me explain.
Since its inception on a Melbourne kitchen table 31 years ago, Intrepid has been committed to balancing purpose and profit for all of our staff, customers an
